This guest post was written by Elisha of My Health Maven. She is deeply passionate about educating people and empowering them to lead healthier lives. I encourage you to check out her blog.

There are many foods that can help detoxify the liver and help the body to eliminate toxic waste. Some of the most overlooked foods are sulfur based foods. Your liver is constantly working to filter and cleanse the body of toxins from environmental pollutants and foods.

It is, however, easy for the liver to become highly stressed from too many fatty and processed foods as well as toxins from cleaning products and personal care products that are laden with chemicals. When the liver is overworked it just can’t function as efficiently as it should. A liver that isn’t functioning properly can lead to numerous health problems.

Why is Sulfur Important?

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Sulfur is the third most prominent mineral in the human body. Almost half of the sulfur in your body is found in your bones, skin, and muscles. Sulfur has a role in proper insulin function and detoxification. Sulfur is also an important part of several amino acids (which are the building blocks of protein), especially methionine and cysteine.

It helps the body resist bacteria and cleanses the blood. Sulfur is also part of the important antioxidants that your body produces glutathione. Without sulfur, glutathione is useless. Why is this important? Because glutathione helps to detoxify the body.

Sulfur’s Additional Benefits

The Weston A. Price Foundation notes: “Sulfur is known as a healing mineral, and a sulfur deficiency often leads to pain and inflammation associated with various muscle and skeletal disorders.

Sulfur plays a role in many biological processes, one of which is metabolism. It is present in insulin, the essential hormone that promotes the utilization of sugar derived from carbohydrates for fuel in muscle and fat cells.”

Sulfur-Rich Foods

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Sulfur-rich foods are easily found in foods such as grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, and wild caught salmon. Sulfur is also found in vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, turnips, bok choy, legumes, and kohlrabi, as well as leafy greens like spinach and kale.

Foods from the allium family such as garlic, chives, leek, shallots, scallion and onion are best known for their sulfur content. If you’re a fan of bone broths this is another great food to increase your intake of sulfur.

Liver Detoxification Simplified

There are two major detoxification pathways in the liver, which are called phase one and phase two detoxification pathways.

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Phase One

During this phase, it breaks down toxins into less harmful chemicals.

Phase Two

In phase two detoxification, liver cells add additional substances such as cysteine, glycine or sulfur molecules to render the toxins less harmful.

It also makes the toxin more water soluble so it can be excreted from the body. In order for efficient phase two detox, the liver requires sulfur-containing amino acids like cysteine and taurine. Eating cruciferous vegetables and other foods that contain sulfur are great options that enhance the liver’s detoxification processes.

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